


Ripple Rejection

by feverbeats



Series: Bioengineering [6]
Category: Captain America, Iron Man (Movies)
Genre: F/M, M/M, Trans Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-09-18
Updated: 2011-09-18
Packaged: 2017-10-23 20:39:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,055
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/254757
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/feverbeats/pseuds/feverbeats
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"That's your kid, all right," Peggy says dryly.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ripple Rejection

**Author's Note:**

> At least related to the [Bioengineering](http://archiveofourown.org/series/9883) universe. Mash-up of comicsverse and movieverse. As usual. (Bucky is comics Bucky, though, 100%.) FUCK REALISM, EVERYONE'S TRANS. Oh, uh, timeline note: Doctor Doom probably wasn't around when Tony was a teenager, but fuck it, you know?

"You're not  _listening_  to me," Howard snaps. "What we're looking at here is a massive energy influx that—"

" _You're_  not listening," Peggy snaps back. "What you're talking about isn't possible."

Howard can feel Steve watching them. The base, with all its scientific equipment and maps, is far too small for all of them. Steve will be looking politely confused, Howard is sure. He spins around long enough to confirm this. Bucky's smart mouth is shut for once, and he's sharpening a little knife while he watches Howard, his posture exaggeratedly casual in contrast with Steve's. And Peggy is just yelling at him.

"It's not impossible," Howard says tightly. "I'm telling you, we may not be there yet, but someday soon—"

"Bullshit," Peggy snaps, and oh god, why does she keep interrupting him? "All your futurist nonsense is fine at your expo, but we're in the real world here, and time travel is  _not_  possible."

"I'm just telling you what my readings say." Howard jabs at a few buttons, hopefully doing something that will stabilize the energy streaming through. "I'm a scientist."

"A twelve-year-old scientist," Peggy says. "Is that thing even  _real?_ " She gestures toward his moustache.

Howard skids to a half, but only briefly. "Yep." Real, real, it's real something. Not real  _person hair_  that he  _grew on his face himself_ , but that's not what she asked.

(No one asks questions about his documents. His credentials are unconventional  _anyway_.)

Peggy's opening her mouth to—probably—yell at him again when half of Howard's equipment explodes.

Howard hits the floor before he can process what's happening, and he realizes fuzzily that Peggy has pushed him. Maybe she doesn't hate him and will consider having sex with him at a later date. Steve's covering Bucky with his shield, but by the time Howard gets unsteadily to his feet, Bucky has shaken off the help and is looking around for the source of the trouble.

So the thing is, the source of trouble seems to be a teenager.

She's standing at the edge of the room, near the former equipment. Her shock of black hair is cut short and there's ash on her bare shoulders. She's wearing a tank-top that reads "SCIENCE!" This is easily the most surreal thing that's happened today.

"Dad?" she says.

She appears to be staring at Howard. New most surreal thing.

He's torn between smugly informing Peggy that yeah,  _time travel_  and saying--"I have a  _kid_?" He's baffled. "I mean,  _how_? Am I really your—"

"My dad," she says, frowning. "Right?"

"Right," Howard says, already turning over ways to make that happen. "Well, hi."

"Hi." She extended her hand for a very firm handshake. "Natasha. You can call me Tasha."

*

It takes Howard two hours and a lot of waving of notebooks full of scribbles to convince Peggy and Steve that Tasha could have ended up here through science. He's pretty sure they're just agreeing to shut him up, though. According to Tasha, she ran afoul of someone named "Doctor Doom" (not actually weirder than Red Skull, to be fair) and he sent her back in time.

"He's kidnapping teenagers and keeping them in the past until he can get ransom," Tasha says. "Especially the kids of rich people, so thanks for that."

Howard thinks she's a little drunk. She's also wearing an MIT sweatshirt around her waist, which is impressive, given that she looks about fifteen.

"So, s'pose this whole wacky time thing is true," Bucky says, twirling a pencil across his knuckles. His face is intent and curious. "Even so, what do we do about it? Wait for future Stark to pay up and the kid to get yanked back there, or what?"

Steve, of course, is taking it all very seriously. "That seems like a mistake," he says. "I know we can't do much from here, but bowing to a—a _supervillain's_  demands is just not how we operate."

"Jeez," Bucky mutters under his breath.

"Steve's right," Peggy says, unsurprisingly.

Howard sighs and leans back in his chair. "Okay, well, I'd love to hear what your ideas are, then. Because I may be a scientific genius, but I can't see a way to help her from here.  _We_  don't have a time machine."

Tasha stands up, clearly bored. "Okay, I can't do this sitting still thing," she says, running a hand through her hair and getting leftover ash from the explosion on her forehead. She's really messy, this kid of his. "I want to find a way back. I'm going to experiment."

"That's your kid, all right," Peggy says dryly. Which really, could mean a number of things.

*

Tasha's experiments go on for five days before she gives up and starts to deal with being here, instead. She's only there for a week before Bucky has taught her half his tricks. Howard's pretty sure she's taught him some, too. The point is, they're a depressingly unstoppable force when they want something.

Things have been pretty quiet for a week, too, and Steve and Bucky have only been out on routine patrols. Everyone's getting a little antsy, Howard thinks. He knows he is.

One night, Bucky is teaching Tasha to throw knives while she teaches him chemical equations (neither of them is doing too well) while Howard, Steve, and Peggy watch.

"I'm glad Bucky has a friend closer to his own age," Steve says, returning to the map he's been idly looking over. "I think he's been having trouble making friends here."

"War isn't about making friends," Peggy sighs.

"Tell Steve that," Howard shoots back, putting his feet up on Peggy's chair. She shoves them off.

Steve flushes. "I just meant—" Someone else would have given up, but Steve seems immune. "I meant it's good to have people you can relate to, even here."

"Just what  _is_  Bucky's 'own age?'" Peggy asks skeptically as he hurls a knife at the wall. "Because from the look of it, it isn't eighteen."

Steve goes pink in the way he has ever since the Howling Commandos started saying all that and more about Bucky. "No," he says firmly, "he's eighteen."

Steve really, really believes that. Then again, everyone probably thinks Howard's a little older than he is, too. Fake-looking fake moustache aside.

“Cripes,” Bucky mutters, pulling the knife out of the target board. Tasha actually hit it instead of the wall this time. She laughs, and yeah, now Howard can see being happy for them. Or maybe miserable and lonely from himself.

"I really wish Obie were here," Howard says fervently. The world's best business partner and sometimes sex-friend is back in America, running things while Howard is off flying planes into mortal danger and not getting pinned to the bed by sexy British agents (yet).

Tasha's head shoots up from the sheet of equations that's probably partially responsible for her poor aim. "Obie? Where is he? Is he in America? You guys know each other already?" She looks like an excited cat.

"Yes," Howard says carefully. "So, I take it we're still partners in the future." His mind is shouting,  _IS OBADIAH YOUR OTHER DAD?_

Tasha nods excitedly. "He's basically my fucking  _hero_."

There are practically hearts coming out of her eyes. It would be irrational to be jealous.

"He's really into my projects," Tasha continues. "And not just the science stuff, either. He's always setting me up on dates and sneaking me whiskey and watching TV with me and—"

"I get the picture," Howard practically snaps. And where is he in this picture? This could explain the weird looks Tasha keeps giving him, like she doesn't know what to say or think. The way she flinches when he snaps is worse. "Sorry," he says quickly. "I'm just stressed out. Kiddo."

She's probably no more than four years younger than him, so  _kiddo_  isn't really fair.

"It's cool," she says too breezily. "At least you can hear me when I talk."

Peggy blinks. "She actually displays her problems  _more_  blatantly than you, Howard."

Steve is frowning like he thinks everyone is being mean, but he's finally learned to shut up and let Howard and Peggy banter.

"Shucks," Bucky says, "we'd probably all be that bad if we wound up meeting our dads. Cut her some slack."

"I know I would," Steve says with an uncomfortable little laugh.

Apparently Steve Rogers does not have a picture-perfect life. Surprise of the year.

"C'mon, Bucky, more knives," Tasha says.

*

Two more days and Howard is getting sick of the way Tasha looks at all of them. She muttered something on the first day about "oh holy shit  _Cap_ ," so Howard is guessing Steve is just as unbearably adored in the future as he's becoming now. Or, more embarrassingly, maybe Howard winds up gushing to his daughter about Steve, which would be awkward.

As for the looks Tasha gives  _him_ , he's gotten a pretty good idea what those mean. That hopeful, concerned puppy thing is upsetting, and Howard just wants to yell that fine, he'll pay attention to her.

Today, Peggy is teaching her how to use a gun (although Howard's pretty sure she already knows) while Howard watches.

Across the yard, Bucky pushes himself off the wall and heads over to Steve, who is arguing with the Howling Commandos. That's a regular actively around here. Three guesses what they're teasing him about.

Steve says, just loudly enough for Howard to hear, "Bucky, we need to talk."

Bucky hits Steve's arm hard enough that it looks like it would even hurt a super-solider. " _Jeez_ , Steve, no. We've been over this. We really don't."

"But I—"

"C'mon, champ," Bucky says, clapping Steve on the shoulder he barely comes up to. "Let's go grab something to eat and stop you from worrying, okay? Tell ya what, I'll catch up in a sec."

Steve goes back inside, frowning as he passes Howard. Bucky flings himself casually against the wall next to Howard, who wishes he hadn't been staring.

"Those Howling Commandos," Bucky says, chuckling. "Some imagination. I wonder if they were telling tales about how I'm sixteen or about how I fucked half the guys on base before I got partnered up with Steve?"

Howard shrugs noncommittally. "For all I know they were teasing him about how the only reason you got partnered up with him was to help him work off the tension once in a while."

"So, hey," Bucky says without missing a single fucking beat, "a kid, huh?"

"You noticed," Howard says, fiddling with his moustache. "She's been here for almost two weeks, you know."

Bucky leans back against the wall of the barracks, exaggeratedly casual. "Uh huh. Wonder how  _that_  one works out."

Howard aggressively ignores him. "In the usual way, I'll bet," he says deliberately.

Bucky stares into space at Tasha and Peggy for a second, but Howard's pretty sure he's really looking past them, at the Commandos. Then he turns to Howard and winks. "I won't tell if you won't. Us queers have to stick together, huh?"

"Whatever you say," Howard mutters. As if anyone with  _eyes_  couldn't tell that Bucky's a fag. But they can't tell that Steve is, so that's important. Important to Bucky, certainly. Dangerous, vicious little Bucky who, Howard realizes, is willing to get pretty nasty in order to make sure Howard keeps his mouth shut about what goes on in Steve's bed. As is Howard would bother. The only part of Steve's bed he's interested in is Peggy.

Bucky, apparently satisfied, gives Howard a sharp little smile and heads inside after Steve.

Howard watches Tasha and she assembles the disassembled gun without even looking too closely. Peggy looks somewhere between annoyed and impressed.

So Howard's going to be a dad someday. He didn't really see that one coming. And maybe he's going to be a shitty dad, but it's still going to happen. He wonders if he'll remember all this once Tasha makes it back home. If she makes it back home.

Knowing he's going to have a kid makes some of this easier. (The undefined  _this_  is always there.) That's not to say it isn't hard. It is hard. But being disgustingly rich makes it easier, and having a kid makes it worth it.

Tasha cocks the gun and grins over at him, and he grins back.


End file.
